Category: News (Page 107 of 183)

The Sweet Scent of Mystery

August 16, 2007 / Geoff May

Sarah Jessica Parker is probably one of the last people we’d expect to see in a web-based mystery, or “interactive fictional story”, let alone actually seeing a web-based game promoting a new perfume. However, Sarah’s new fragrance “Covet” is at the center of a game which begins at CaseOfTheCovetedBottle.com (also the perfume’s official website). The premise is this: “You must try to locate the missing bottle of Covet perfume and help prove that Sarah Jessica Parker has been framed for its disappearance. To do this, your goal is to identify the true mastermind behind the theft.”

The game works much like other recently run promotional campaigns where challenges or riddles are released based on a schedule, leading towards an end goal usually consisting of a challenge or draw for a grand prize. In this case, if you’re able to solve each of ten “lead challenges” released over a ten week period (the end date of the game is October 15), you’ll be entered into the grand prize drawing for $10,000, a trip for two to New York to attend Lucky Magazine’s Lucky Shops 2007, and of course a few Covet products. Numerous other secondary rewards are up for grabs, including weekly prize drawings, and prizes for two bonus challenges.

While The Case of the Coveted Bottle seems to follow in the footsteps of similar online ‘treasure hunt’ promotions, a few points stand out about this one. First, the How To Play guide is clear in encouraging community cooperation, even to the point of linking directly to the Unfiction forums as an example of a community to join. Secondly, in solving the weekly leads, not only are you entered into drawings, but the overall story and mystery is also advanced. The game is filled with opportunities to employ numerous research strategies, from googling for information and answers to interacting with characters in their blogs. The two bonus challenges encourage creativity by requiring players to make videos based on particular guidelines, and post them to MySpace or Youtube, where the winners will be chosen by popularity (votes and judging).

Network Outages

August 15, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Through the course of today, ARGNet may or may not have been unavailable, or may have been slow or sluggish. Our host has had sporadic, random problems with their servers today, especially (we found, anyway) with their SQL servers. We apologize if the site was misbehaving for anyone earlier, but things seem to be fine now, so hopefully they have their problems fixed.

Calling All Aspiring Game Designers!

August 9, 2007 / Jessica Price

Have you ever had a really cool idea for a game, but despaired of finding enough funding to realize your dream?

If so, Canada’s BIG Games Design Competition may provide you with the opportunity you need to break into design. The Aitken Leadership Group are sponsoring a contest calling for the creation of games that include real-world interaction and take place in real time. Pitch your design to a panel of judges on ~~October 13~~ October 5, 2007 [Ed. note: the judging date has changed], and if they pick your game, you’ll receive $5, 000.00 to create it, as well as “truly enviable notoriety.”

The rules from the site are as follows:

1) the game must be fun
2) the game must be playable by pretty much anyone: young, old, straight, gay, transgendered, street-engaged, married, people living with disabilities, people living in yaletown, people who play World of Warcraft, etc.
3) the gameplay requires real-world interaction between people (such as online interaction, personal ads, phone-tag, postcards, flashmobs, etc.)
4) Players’ social networks are expanded to include people who are “different” from themselves

Email Brian Smith ([email protected]) for more information. We couldn’t find anything on the site saying you had to be a Canadian resident to compete, but you will have to present your pitch in Vancouver.

(Bear in mind that if you win this contest after learning about it here, ARGNet will expect repayment for the tip in the form of an exclusive interview. You were warned.)

Emmy Gets Interactive

August 9, 2007 / Jessica Price

This year’s Emmy Awards have a category for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television, and regular observers of and participants in the world of alternate reality gaming may see quite a few familiar names in the candidate lineup. Check out the ITVT Blog’s exclusive on the awards for lots of interesting information.

Nominees include:

Heroes Interactive (NBC Universal)
DirecTV Interactive Sports
The Jericho Experience (CBS)
The Fallen Alternative Reality Game (Xenophile Media & Double Twenty Productions)
Big Brother Goes Mobile (CBS)

ARGNet Editor Jonathan Waite was behind the curtain on Fallen‘s Ocular Effect game, which has already picked up a few other awards, including a SXSW Interactive Award and a Banff World TV Festival Awards. Unfiction players also participated in the Jericho Experience and Heroes Interactive. ARGs are represented on the judging panel as well, which includes 42 Entertainment President & CEO Joe DiNunzio.

Regardless of which nominee wins, we’re happy to see chaotic fiction/alternate reality games/television extended experiences — or however you’d like to classify these works — getting mainstream recognition for their excellence, and offer all of them our congratulations. Here’s hoping the competition gets even fiercer in future years.

MTV’s Room 401 Delivers Thrills, Chills, and an Extended Experience

August 3, 2007 / Michael Andersen

The famed illusionist and skeptic Harry Houdini died in Detroit Grace Hospital, Room 401 at 1:26PM on Halloween of 1926. A life shrouded in secrecy ended with secrecy, as the master magician left friends and family with ten words that, if uttered, would conclusively prove his greatest escape of all.

Almost a century later, MTV’s new reality show “Room 401” pays homage to the tricks and illusions of Houdini by assembling skilled illusionists to scare the living daylights out of unsuspecting victims. And as those of you who read BoingBoing already know, executive producer Ashton Kutcher is providing viewers with a little something extra.

Embedded within select frames in each episode of “Room 401” are shots of Ashton Kutcher holding up cue cards with clues leading to various websites including clips from future episodes and bonus features such as the storyboard for the show’s teaser. While the puzzles are a trifle simplistic and there does not yet appear to be a cohesive plot, the fun of this game is derived from searching the show’s frames for secret messages (behavior that must make the show’s advertisers ecstatic). Additionally, players are finding hints of something bigger in the websites’ registration information in addition to morse in the online videos, so the possibility for more exists.

Each episode leads players to discover a new website. The game’s most recent website, as of the third episode, has a countdown ending at the next episode and presumably additional content Tuesday at 10pm (EST). Be careful, though–follow the game too closely, and you just might end up the final victim of Room 401.

Click Here for the 401WTF Wiki, a comprehensive walkthrough of the game so far
Click Here for the UnFiction thread
Click Here for the official MTV Website for the show

It’s Tomorrow Calling. Do You Accept the Charges?

August 2, 2007 / Nicko Demeter

If a relative from the future asked for your help to protect the Earth, what would you do?

This is the first line of the teaser email leading to a new alternate reality game called Tomorrow Calling which is aimed to bring environmental awareness to the ARG community. The game offers the usual (such as hidden clues on the sites, YouTube videos, and cryptic blogs) while the flavorful text speaks of an uncertain tomorrow, and an Earth that we must protect now for future generations.

While ARGNet could find no indication that there is any overlap in puppetmasters, characters in Tomorrow Calling link to sites from another environmentally sensitive ARG, World Without Oil, and refer to it not as a game, but as a “reality.”

The message is sent loud and clear within the text as much as within the actual clues. Do you need to find the next website? Then you must read the blog of a woman that muses about her fears for the earth as we know it. Do you want to know why the evil organization is… evil? Check out a Google Earth file with important dates and sites for the environmental movement.

According to its creators, the game so far has welcomed only a few players, in order to work out the kinks for a larger scale launch. With its beta launch back in May, the sites definitely look professional and the blog posts are well thought out. However, it appears to me to be an immersive, but mostly static narrative without a great deal of direct interaction.

The game has garnered some critical acclaim, as its (apparent) creators Jim Wolff and Andrea Sides have won the Grant Challenge Award at the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth, held this past June in San Francisco. With its aspirations to educate as well as entertain, we are certainly looking forward to more from Tomorrow Calling in the near future.